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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
Brief outline of the speech of Boris Maltsev,
Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma, at the XXXIV Duma Session Today we are passing the Law on the 2010 budget and the next three years. The bill was prepared for the second reading by concerted efforts of the Budget Conference Committee, all of the Duma deputies, and the Oblast Administration.
This year the Conference Committee has not had much maneuvering room as we apparently do not have reserves to increase budget revenues as well as there are no sources of socio-economic optimism. Yet we managed to find additional 565m rubles.
But I still have to admit that in a situation where we have lost almost 5bn rubles against the current year it does not matter how hard you “hog the blanket” and try to improve, it is impossible to patch all holes.
In those circumstances the hardest blow is on the “development budget”. In 2008 we spent 5.7bn rubles for investment and innovative activity in Tomsk Oblast, in 2009 – 3.9bn rubles. The next year we only have 0.8bn rubles in the regional budget for that purpose.
It is obvious that we cannot afford to boost our economy with the regional budget alone. Here the first fiddle should be played by public and private investments. And to attract those investments we must not just point at our swamps and ask for money. We must pave the way for investments – build roads, run pipes, supply power.
Our Duma is, unfortunately, unable to wheedle the funds out of the federal budget. It falls to the share of the executive authority. And in fact the region is able to make its living but the income distribution mechanism works in the way that a lion’s share of the revenues goes to the Federation center. In 2010 we will collect almost 60bn rubles of taxes. However, the region is allowed to take only a bit over 24bn rubles. We must push harder to secure a fairer mechanism of income distribution.
When we are approving the budget for the next year we are somewhat winding up execution of the Oblast Law on the 2009 budget. In spite of the crisis, lower industrial output and, consequently, fewer revenues, we have managed to keep all social payments to the population. Still, when you dwell on a thought that 280,000 people in the region receive social payments, the relief turns into sadness. Because it means that in our region there are 280,000 poor people.
Implementation of the 2010 budget will require hard efforts of all the population of the Oblast, workers of all industries and sectors, authorities at all levels.
We were among the first in Russia to have created a crisis management group headed by our Governor Viktor Kress which enabled swift reaction to emerging difficulties. And you should remember there were plenty of them.
We have gone through a very tough year. On top of the economic hardships we had influenza. In the fall and the early winter 110,000 people in the region (11% of the total population) were down with flu! And winter has only just started.
This is our last session in the current year and we are bringing to a close another very important and challenging round of our parliamentary activity.
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